Anime Discovery – TIME OF THE SEASON Winter 2014 Edition: WIZARD Barristers

Hmmm……a show about Wizard lawyers. Did somebody thought of “Law and Order: Wizardry Unit”? Oh wait, it’s by the Yasuomi Umetsu……it’s going to be like “SVU”, right?

Director: Yasuomi Umetsu

Animation Studio: ARMS

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Licensor: Sentai Filmworks

Plot Summary: In 2018, humans and wizards live together in Tokyo. Police continue to protect order in society, but wizards are tried according to magical law, in special courts defended by wizard barristers. At age seventeen, Cecile has just become the youngest wizard barrister, and begins work at the Butterfly Law Offices. While she hasn’t realized it yet, she has tremendous magical potential.

Thoughts on it so far: OK, with Umetsu, he has made stuff that kept me interested in the long-run but sometimes his direction can be jarring to some. I thought Kite was a decent but pretentious effort while the sequel Kite: Liberator was an utter mess. Mezzo Forte was a fun and crazy ride while Mezzo DSA was safe and unambitious and of course, last season’s Gailiei Donna was fun but mostly convoluted. This one, however…….I’m really liking this show so far and while it being a court-procedural show does raise an eyebrow out of me since I barely even watch any live-action court shows, it does have its other merits, mostly action (which is Umetsu’s forte), mystery and style. But while this is a clear favorite of mine, I’m worried if it’ll go the way Donna did. I like that in the angle that while you have the power of magic, sometimes it can get you into some deep misfortune and some of that can be unfairly justified for those who use it to protect rather than harm. In other words, magic is ILLEGAL!!! For animation, I said before that Studio ARMS is my least favorite anime studio with the exception of Umetsu’s works and it is definitely an Umetsu work from the action to the character designs (which I really don’t mind) to some of the pervy behavior of one character.

I’m going with CONTINUE WEEKLY. I’m really digging the hell out of this show and I really hope for it to not end sloppily.

And until then, this is MAK2.0 aka The Blue Hybrid, bringing all the magical elements in one courtroom.